1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lightweight concrete and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a method and apparatus for manufacturing unitary lightweight concrete composite blocks.
2. Description of the Related Art
The primary building materials utilized today are wood and concrete. Wood unfortunately has become extremely expensive due to reduced supplies caused by restrictions resulting from today""s environmentally conscious society. Further, wood often does not provide the structural safety available from other building materials, such as concrete. Concrete, however, is also expensive, which restricts its use to projects requiring the structural safety advantages associated with concrete.
Thus, the building industry constantly seeks to reduce building costs while at least meeting or actually improving upon structural safety standards. One such improved product consists of lightweight concrete, which is composed of water, cement, and polystyrene. Lightweight concrete provides reduced costs in materials by replacing cement with less expensive polystyrene. Lightweight concrete further provides structural safety comparable to cement and improved over wood.
Unfortunately, the reduced materials costs of lightweight concrete are counteracted through manufacturing difficulties, which drive up costs. Currently, lightweight concrete is virtually manufactured manually in that lightweight concrete slurries are poured into molds and allowed to cure but, upon removal from molds, must be glued together and trimmed before a block sufficient for use exists. Accordingly, an apparatus and corresponding method that manufactures unitary lightweight concrete composite blocks, thereby eliminating costly and time intensive assembly would significantly improve over the foregoing related art.
In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus for manufacturing lightweight concrete composite blocks includes a form, a station conveyor, a form-loading station, a curing oven, and a block removal station.
The form can define any shape of unitary concrete block desired, including rectangular blocks and corner blocks. A station conveyor conveys the form or a multitude of forms around the apparatus in a continuous loop to produce a desired rate of production of unitary lightweight concrete blocks. First, the form-loading station fills the form with a lightweight concrete composite and compresses the form to seal the composite within the form. The station conveyor conveys the form through a curing oven to cure the lightweight concrete composite into a unitary lightweight concrete block. Next, the station conveyor conveys the form to a block removal station, where the unitary lightweight concrete block is removed from the form. Subsequently, the form is returned to the form-loading station to be reused.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an apparatus that manufactures unitary lightweight concrete blocks.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus that manufactures unitary lightweight concrete blocks at a high rate of production to reduce time and costs of production.
Still other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become evident to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the following.